The Runaround, Vol. 0.5

Maintain your sanity during Tuesday's debate

Welcome

Here are a few things I’m assuming about you, dear reader. Am I right?

• You care about the outcome of this election, but you’re mostly put off by politics.

• You wish things were different, but you’re not quite sure how.

• You want to stay informed, but staying informed is exhausting.

Does that describe you? Email me either way; who you are will shape what I include here.

One Thing

As you’ve no doubt heard, all eyes are on Tuesday’s debate. Technically, here’s how to watch.

• And you can hear my post-debate take on Texas Public Radio Wednesday morning at 10am!

But how should you watch, emotionally? Here are a few ideas for watching the debate and keeping sane:

• The campaign is, at this point, not about persuading informed voters. They have already picked a side. It’s about (a) making sure your team shows up on Election Day and (b) persuading voters in key swing states who are just tuning in to the election.

  • Who do you know like that? Have them in the back of your mind as you watch. Text them to see what they think!

  • What issues do you care about? If you get overwhelmed during the debate, Simple Google searches can help, and I’ve found ChatGPT a great place to get some basic education, as long as you don’t trust it more than your friends.

  • Watch with the sound off. If it gets too much, mute the TV and see what the candidates vibes are.

  • Zoom out: If you want to see what other people are searching, check out Google Trends.

• Go deeper: I did quite a bit of background prep for the last debate, which you can read too much of here.

The Headlines

• Dick Cheney (not Duck Cheney, as I accidentally called him in last week’s post) has endorsed Kamala Harris. I think the last time that happened was Joe Lieberman endorsing John McCain in 2008.

• Trump has worked his way back into the news cycle, talking about the 25th amendment, his sexual assault charges, jailing election officials, and mass deportation.

  • It’s hard to tell what of this is strategic and what of this is the candidate going off-script.

• The Republicans in the House have released their report on the Afghanistan withdrawal, (probably) hoping Trump can connect Harris to Biden’s foreign policy.

• The New York Times’ latest poll has Trump leading the race nationally, which is not good news for Harris. Their podcast The Daily covers it in depth in “The Harris Honeymoon is Over.”

Dick Cheney in a hunting outfit, but if he were a duck